Hitch mounted equipment carriers, such as bicycle carriers or racks, are often utilized to secure equipment such as one or more bicycles to a vehicle to transport the bicycles from one location to another. Such racks generally include a hitch-mounting stem or hitch-mounting member such as a bar or tube that is releasably attachable to a trailer hitch receiver located on the rear of a vehicle. The hitch-mounting member supports a bracket to which is attached a support member that extends from the bracket. In some racks the support member is an upwardly extending tube that includes a rearwardly extending section at its upper end, which is provided with frame engagement structure for supporting bicycles in a suspended manner. In other racks the support member is a rearwardly extending horizontal member having wheel or fork engagement structure for supporting bicycles from below.
In either rack configuration, the bracket allows the support member to be pivoted or moved relative to the hitch-mounting member, such that the rack and the support member can be moved from a use or operative position to a non-use or inoperative position. For a support member in the form of an upwardly extending tube, the tube is adapted to be pivoted from an upstanding operative position to a rearwardly angled non-use position, which allows access to the rear tailgate or trunk area of the vehicle. For a rearwardly extending horizontal support member, the support member is pivoted from a horizontal operative position to an upstanding non-use position.
Based on the very different manners of pivoting movement between the operative and non-use portions for bicycles racks incorporating an upstanding support member and a horizontal support member, and the particular configuration of the individual support members, the brackets utilized to secure each of these support members to the hitch-mounting members have previously been specially designed to accommodate the configuration of the particular support member and its manner of pivoting movement between its operative and non-use positions. Therefore, it has been necessary for a manufacturer to produce a separate bracket for each type of rack. Further, in order for a user to change from a bicycle rack with a horizontal supporting member to a rack with an upright supporting member, or vice versa, it has been necessary for the user to purchase one of each type of rack.
As a result, it is desirable to develop a universal mounting bracket that can be fixed to a hitch-mounting member and utilized to movably secure a rack having either a horizontal support member or an upright support member to the hitch-mounting member, in order to provide manufacturing efficiencies and to allow the bicycle rack to be converted from one type to another without having to change the bracket and the hitch-mounting member.